The 19-story building was completed in 1927,[1] it was built as a women's hotel and designed by the architectural firm Murgatroyd & Ogden.[2] It was acquired by The Salvation Army and turned into temporary housing for single women from 1963 to 2008,[3][4] it was then known as the Parkside Evangeline.[3]

18 Gramercy Park is a historic building in Manhattan, New York City, USA. Built as a hotel in 1927, it was a women's temporary residence owned by The Salvation Army from 1963 to 2008, it was redesigned by Robert A.M. Stern Architects as a luxury residential building in 2012. The 19-story building was completed in 1927, it was built as a women's hotel and designed by the architectural firm Murgatroyd & Ogden. It was acquired by The Salvation Army and turned into temporary housing for single women from 1963 to 2008, it was then known as the Park side Evangeline. The building was sold by the Salvation Army to Eastgate Realty for US $60 million in 2010, the investors were the Zeckendorf family and Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. In 2012, the building was redesigned into a residential building with 16 apartments by Robert A.M. Stern Architects.The duplex penthouse was purchased by Leslie Alexander, the owner of the Houston Rockets basketball team in 2012, reportedly for US $42 million. Residents have a key to Gramercy Park, a private park.

Private Park only for residence Photo from Moulton, S. (Photography). Gramercy Park, taken July 2012, Retrieved April 7, 2016.

18 Gramercy park was built in 1927. Gramercy park is a quiet residential corner within the New York’s most unambiguously enduring neighborhood. It is the only park with a key to the private park in Manhattan. Owners at 18 Gramercy Park have the privilege of buying an annual key to Manhattan’s only private park, a stately and peaceful area full with history. Access is exclusive to people who live directly on the park; in a number of city’s most architecturally necessary and numerous buildings; with its wrought-iron gates, blue stone sidewalks, shaded lawns, and wooden benches, Gramercy Park holds an everlasting charm. Residents of 18 Gramercy Park will fancy these two wonderful acres as their own grounds.

One of the world's most praised designers, Robert A.M. Stern is senior member of the Yale School of Engineering and an author and instructor with a significant enthusiasm for the improvement of New York urbanism. Robert A.M. Stern Planners, LLP, is a 250-man engineering and inside configuration firm with over 40 years of practice as a universal pioneer in private, business, and institutional work. Ventures incorporate Fifteen Focal Stop West, the Spangler Grounds Center at Harvard Business college, and Hong Kong's 50 Connaught Street Central.

18 Gramercy Park is not a Central Stop other than the part where people who live in Gramercy Park gets their own one of a kind key. 18 Gramercy Park uncovers seven units conversely, including the fourteenth floor and twelfth floors. Recorded for $17.7million and $17.4 million individually, a $16.5 million four-room on the ninth floor, a $15.4 million four-room on the second, a fifth-floor home recorded for $15 million and a fourth-floor spread asking $14.8 million. According to representatives of the developer, 8 of the available units, including the $42 million penthouse, are still in contract. All of the residences are designed with a balance of comfort with spacious rooms and oversize windows.[8]

Since arrangements moved in September 2012, the building has sold most of its units, with the ordinary expense of some lower-floor pads vaulting above $4,000 a square foot, which appears to have couple of perspectives among the present harvest of new headway, according to Street Easy, an area site. Furthermore, a rate of the full-floor units—which, like their uptown precursors, gloat marble showers, Miele dishwashers, thick white-oak floorboards, and the approval of creator Robert A.M. Stern—have been the priciest courses of action of the week when they traded, for instance, the eleventh floor level that close at $17.53 million in June.[9] Besides, similarly seems to have never seen a home offer for $42 million, which is the thing that Leslie Alexander, the Houston Rockets proprietor, paid the past succumb to 18 Gramercy's five-room duplex penthouse, according to news reports.[10]

18 Gramercy Park. there's nothing else like this in New York. Hand assigned for its irregularity as an ultra-selective locale that stands separated in every side, this is regularly a definitive arrival of four full-floor, four room apartment suite habitations and an uncommon three-level Maisonette with private passage, every zone offers extravagant regular light-weight and far reaching sees. Planned by Robert A.M.Stern and Zeckendorf Improvement, everything about considered to make a one of a kind style of living. Without inquiry, nothing else thinks about. 18 Gramercy Park offers protection and incorporates two rooftop porches, a club room and spa and wellness focus. A 24-hour porter, and a full-time staff. Developing components to 34 windows, four exposures and emotional park and a horizon view, the highlights of this building is that there is a concierge, lift, and pets permitted principle.[11]

Amidst Manhattan, the Gramercy Park zone holds a particular pride of spot, the area of 18 Gramercy Park furnishes inhabitants with perfect access to walk-able places additionally giving open transportation everywhere throughout the city. The best thing about the area is the New York's sustenance scene, from 18 Gramercy Stop, the city's most loved and the best eateries are just few squares away. For instance Gramercy Bar, ABC Kitchen, and Eleven Madison Park. Both uptown and downtown undertakings also benefit by park sees, at 18 Gramercy, they are of the formal French-style Gramercy Park, whose two sylvan areas of area, laid out in 1831, part created trees, rock ways, and a Calder model. Getting inside, nonetheless, isn't straightforward, the diversion focus made iron gateways are darted, and simply the people who live around its outskirt can have keys, each of which costs $350 a year.

1.
Gramercy Park
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The neighborhood, which is divided between New York Citys Manhattan Community Board 5 and Manhattan Community Board 6, is generally perceived to be a quiet and safe area. The neighborhood, associated historic district, and park have generally received positive reviews, calling it a Victorian gentleman who has refused to die, Charlotte Devree in The New York Times said that There is nothing else quite like Gramercy Park in the country. When the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission created the Gramercy Park Historic District in 1966, pines 1921 book, The Story of Gramercy Park, The laying out of Gramercy Park represents one of the earliest attempts in this country at City Planning. The neighborhoods boundaries are 14th Street to the south, Third Avenue to the east, 23rd Street to the north, and Park Avenue South to the west. The boundaries of the Historic District, set in 1966 and extended in 1988, are irregular, lying within the neighborhood, and can be seen in the map in the infobox on the right. The brook, which become known as Crommessie Vly, flowed in a 40-foot gully along what is now 21st Street into the East River at 18th Street. Krom Moerasje/Krom Mesje became corrupted to Crommessie or Crommashie, mayor James Duane – for whom the citys Duane Street is named – acquired the site in 1761 from Gerardus Stuyvesant and named it Gramercy Seat. Gramercy is an archaic English word meaning many thanks, the area which is now Gramercy Park was once in the middle of a swamp. Ruggles, a developer and advocate of space, proposed the idea for the park due to the northward growth of Manhattan. Ruggles then deeded the land on December 17,1832 to five trustees, to develop the property, Ruggles spent $180,000 to landscape it, draining the swamp and causing about a million horsecart loads of earth to be moved. It was the second private square created in the city, after Hudson Square, also known as St. Johns Park, the new streets reduced the number of lots around the park from 66 to 60. Gramercy Park was enclosed by a fence in 1833, but construction on the surrounding lots did not begin until the 1840s, in one regard this was fortunate, since the opening of the Croton Aqueduct in 1842 allowed new townhouses to be constructed with indoor plumbing. The first formal meeting of the trustees took place in 1844 at 17 Union Square, the mansion of James W. Gerard. By that time, landscaping had already begun with the hiring of James Virtue in 1838, major planting also took place in 1844 – the same year the parks gates were first locked – followed by additional landscaping by Brinley & Holbrook in 1916. These plantings had the effect of softening the parks prim formal design, Gramercy Park itself had been protected with howitzers by troops from the Eighth Regiment Artillery, while the 152nd New York Volunteers encamped in nearby Stuyvesant Square. At #34 and #36 Gramercy Park are two of New Yorks first apartment buildings, designed in 1883 and 1905, in addition, #34 is the oldest existing co-operative apartment building in the city. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, nineteenth century brownstones and carriage houses abound, though the 1920s brought the onset of tenant apartments, in 1890 an attempt was made to run a cable car through the park to connect Irving Place to Lexington Avenue. The bill passed the New York State Legislature, but was vetoed by Governor David B. Hill, the Hotel Irving, at 26 Gramercy Park South, was constructed c.1903

2.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city

3.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange

4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

5.
The Salvation Army
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The Salvation Army is a Christian Protestant church and international charitable organisation structured in a quasi-military fashion. The organisation reports a membership of over 1.5 million, consisting of soldiers, officers. Its founders Catherine and William Booth sought to bring salvation to the poor, destitute and it is present in 127 countries, running charity shops, operating shelters for the homeless and disaster relief and humanitarian aid to developing countries. The theology of the Salvation Army is derived from that of Methodism although it is distinctive in institution, the Armys doctrine is typical of evangelical Protestant denominations. The Armys purposes are the advancement of the Christian religion, of education, the relief of poverty, and other charitable objects beneficial to society or the community of mankind as a whole. The Army was founded in 1865 in London by one-time Methodist circuit-preacher William Booth as the East London Christian Mission, in 1878 Booth reorganised the mission, becoming its first General and introducing the military structure which has been retained to the present day. The current world leader of The Salvation Army is General André Cox, the Salvation Army was founded in Londons East End in 1865 by one-time Methodist Reform Church minister William Booth and his wife Catherine as the East London Christian Mission. The name The Salvation Army developed from an incident on 19 and 20 May, William Booth was dictating a letter to his secretary George Scott Railton and said, We are a volunteer army. Bramwell Booth heard his father and said, Volunteer, Im no volunteer, Im a regular. Railton was instructed to cross out the volunteer and substitute the word salvation. The Salvation Army was modelled after the military, with its own flag and its own hymns, often with words set to popular, Booth and the other soldiers in Gods Army would wear the Armys own uniform, for meetings and ministry work. He became the General and his ministers were given appropriate ranks as officers. When William Booth became known as the General, Catherine is known as the Mother of The Salvation Army, William preached to the poor, and Catherine spoke to the wealthy, gaining financial support for their work. She also acted as a minister, which was unusual at the time. William Booth described the approach, The three ‘Ss’ best expressed the way in which the Army administered to the down and outs, first, soup, second, soap. In 1880, the Salvation Army started its work in three countries, Australia, Ireland, and the United States. When the first official officers arrived in Australia and the United States, they found groups of Salvationists already waiting for them and started working with each other. The Booths did not include the use of sacraments in the Armys form of worship, other beliefs are that its members should completely refrain from drinking alcohol, smoking, taking illegal drugs and gambling

6.
Houston Rockets
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The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association, as a club of the leagues Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its games at the Toyota Center, located in downtown Houston. The Rockets have won two NBA championships and four Western Conference titles, the team was established as the San Diego Rockets, an expansion team originally based in San Diego, in 1967. In 1971, the Rockets moved to Houston, the Rockets won only 15 games in their debut season as a franchise in 1967. In the 1968 NBA draft, the Rockets, picking first overall, selected power forward Elvin Hayes, the Rockets did not finish a season with a winning record until the 1976–77 season, when they traded for center Moses Malone. Malone went on to win the NBA Most Valuable Player award twice and he also led the Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981 where they were defeated in six games by the Boston Celtics, led by Larry Bird and future Rockets coach Kevin McHale. In 1984, the Rockets drafted center Hakeem Olajuwon, who would be paired with 7 feet 4 inches Ralph Sampson, nicknamed the Twin Towers, they led the team to the 1986 NBA Finals—the second NBA Finals appearance in franchise history—where Houston was again defeated by the Boston Celtics. The Rockets continued to reach the playoffs throughout the 1980s, Rudy Tomjanovich took over as head coach midway through the 1991–92 season, ushering in the most successful period in franchise history. Olajuwon-led Rockets went to the 1994 NBA Finals and won franchises first championship against Patrick Ewing, Houston became the lowest-seeded team in NBA history to win the title. After Yaos early retirement in 2011, the Rockets entered a period of rebuilding, the acquisition of franchise player James Harden in 2012 has launched the Rockets back into championship contention in the mid-2010s. The Rockets, under general manager Daryl Morey, are notable for popularizing the use of advanced statistical analytics in player acquisitions and style of play. The Rockets were founded in 1967 in San Diego by Robert Breitbard, Breitbard brought in Jack McMahon, then coach of the Cincinnati Royals, to serve as the Rockets coach and general manager. The Rockets lost 67 games in their season, which was an NBA record for losses in a season at the time. Because of the low performance and attendance, Breitbard looked to sell the team, and in 1971, Texas Sports Investments bought the franchise for $5.6 million, and moved the team to Houston. The franchise became the first NBA team in Texas, and the nickname Rockets took on greater relevance after the move. It was also around this time that the Rockets would unveil their classic yellow and red logo, winter left soon after, being fired in January 1973 following a ten-game losing streak, and was replaced by Johnny Egan. Egan led the Rockets back to the playoffs in 1975, where the franchise also managed to win their first round against the New York Knicks, subsequently losing to the veteran Boston Celtics in 5 games

7.
Samuel B. Ruggles
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Samuel Bulkley Ruggles was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1838, as a large landholder, he donated the land for the creation of Gramercy Park in New York City. Its restrictive covenant has preserved it through much development nearby and he was a member of the citys Chamber of Commerce, which published his reports on economics and public policy. In the 1860s, he represented the United States at several conferences on economics and statistics in Europe. Samuel Ruggles was born in New Milford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, the son of Philo Ruggles, Samuel was a precocious student and graduated from Yale College in 1814 at the age of 14. Although he read for the law, he had to wait to be admitted to the bar until he came of age in 1821. He was a lawyer in New York City for several years and accumulated large landholdings. As a large landholder in New York City, Ruggles created Gramercy Park, dedicated in 1831 and he deeded the property to the city with a covenant restricting surrounding uses to residential and providing that the residents be taxed to maintain the park. He was also instrumental in getting Union Square established, of the parks and squares he said, Come what will, our open squares will remain forever imperishable. Buildings, towers, palaces, may moulder and crumble beneath the touch of time, Ruggles died at the Surf Hotel on Fire Island where he spent his summer vacations. After his wife had died years before, he had given up their big house. His daughter Ellen was married to the attorney George Templeton Strong and his son James F. Ruggles also lived in New York. Chief Judge Charles H. Ruggles was his cousin, Ruggles was a Whig member from New York County of the New York State Assembly in 1838, and was Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. In 1839, he was elected by the New York State Legislature as a Canal Commissioner to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Stephen Van Rensselaer, in 1840, he was the only canal commissioner to remain in office when the new Whig majority removed all Democratic commissioners. In 1842, the Whig commissioners, including Ruggles, were removed by the Democrats, after leaving the Canal Commission, Ruggles became a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce. There he wrote pamphlets and articles about public policy, economics and related issues. He became a trustee of Columbia College and it had started as a letter to the trustees but he decided to expand it and publish it. He urged appointment of Gibbs on the basis of his qualifications and also the upgrading of Columbias curriculum to more of the physical sciences

8.
Theodore Roosevelt
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Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. As a leader of the Republican Party during this time, he became a force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century. Born a sickly child with debilitating asthma, Roosevelt successfully overcame his health problems by embracing a strenuous lifestyle and he integrated his exuberant personality, vast range of interests, and world-famous achievements into a cowboy persona defined by robust masculinity. Home-schooled, he began a lifelong naturalist avocation before attending Harvard College and his first of many books, The Naval War of 1812, established his reputation as both a learned historian and as a popular writer. Upon entering politics, he became the leader of the faction of Republicans in New Yorks state legislature. Returning a war hero, he was elected governor of New York in 1898, the state party leadership distrusted him, so they took the lead in moving him to the prestigious but powerless role of vice presidential candidate as McKinleys running mate in the election of 1900. Roosevelt campaigned vigorously across the country, helping McKinleys re-election in a victory based on a platform of peace, prosperity. Following the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901, Roosevelt succeeded to the office at age 42, making conservation a top priority, he established a myriad of new national parks, forests, and monuments intended to preserve the nations natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America, where he began construction of the Panama Canal and he greatly expanded the United States Navy and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project the United States naval power around the globe. His successful efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize, elected in 1904 to a full term, Roosevelt continued to promote progressive policies, but many of his efforts and much of his legislative agenda were eventually blocked in Congress. Roosevelt successfully groomed his close friend, William Howard Taft, to succeed him in the presidency, after leaving office, Roosevelt went on safari in Africa and toured Europe. Returning to the United States, he became frustrated with Tafts approach, failing to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1912, Roosevelt founded his own party, the Progressive, so-called Bull Moose Party, and called for wide-ranging progressive reforms. The split among Republicans enabled the Democrats to win both the White House and a majority in the Congress in 1912, Republicans aligned with Taft nationally would control the Republican Party for decades. Frustrated at home, Roosevelt led an expedition to the Amazon basin. During World War I, he opposed President Woodrow Wilson for keeping the country out of the war, and offered his military services, although planning to run again for president in 1920, Roosevelt suffered deteriorating health and died in early 1919. Roosevelt has consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest American presidents. Historians admire Roosevelt for rooting out corruption in his administration, but are critical of his 1909 libel lawsuits against the World and his face was carved into Mount Rushmore, alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was born on October 27,1858, at East 20th Street in New York City and he was the second of four children born to socialite Martha Stewart Mittie Bulloch and glass businessman and philanthropist Theodore Roosevelt Sr

9.
Henry James
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Henry James, OM was an American-born British writer. He is regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism and he was the son of Henry James, Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James. He is best known for a number of novels showing Americans encountering Europe and his method of writing from a characters point of view allowed him to explore issues related to consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and unreliable narrators brought a new depth to narrative fiction, James contributed significantly to literary criticism, particularly in his insistence that writers be allowed the greatest possible freedom in presenting their view of the world. James claimed that a text must first and foremost be realistic, good novels, to James, show life in action and are, most importantly, interesting. In addition to his voluminous works of fiction he published articles and books of travel, biography, autobiography, and criticism, and wrote plays. James alternated between America and Europe for the first twenty years of his life, eventually he settled in England, becoming a British subject in 1915, James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911,1912, and 1916. James was born at 2 Washington Place in New York City on 15 April 1843 and his parents were Mary Walsh and Henry James Sr. His father was intelligent, steadfastly congenial, and a lecturer and philosopher who had inherited independent means from his father, Mary came from a wealthy family long settled in New York City, and her sister Katherine lived with the family for an extended period of time. Henry, Jr. had three brothers, William who was one year his senior and younger brothers Wilkinson and Robertson, the family first lived in Albany and then moved to Fourteenth Street in New York City when James was still a young boy. His education was calculated by his father to him to many influences, primarily scientific and philosophical, it was described as extraordinarily haphazard. James did not share the usual education in Latin and Greek classics, Henry studied primarily with tutors and briefly attended a few schools while the family traveled in Europe. Their longest stays were in France, where Henry began to feel at home and became fluent in French, in 1860 the family returned to Newport. There Henry became a friend of the painter John La Farge, who introduced him to French literature, James later called Balzac his greatest master, and said that he had learned more about the craft of fiction from him than from anyone else. In the autumn of 1861 Henry received an injury, probably to his back and this injury, which resurfaced at times throughout his life, made him unfit for military service in the American Civil War. In 1864 the James family moved to Boston, Massachusetts to be near William, in 1862 Henry attended Harvard Law School, but realized that he was not interested in studying law. The future Supreme Court Justice, and with James and Annie Fields and his first published work was a review of a stage performance, Miss Maggie Mitchell in Fanchon the Cricket, published in 1863. About a year later, A Tragedy of Error, his first short story, was published, Jamess first payment was for an appreciation of Sir Walter Scotts novels, written for the North American Review

10.
Herman Melville
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Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee, an account of his experiences in Polynesian life. His work was almost forgotten during his last thirty years and his writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. Born in New York City as the child of a merchant in French dry goods, Melvilles formal education ended abruptly after his father died in 1832. Melville briefly became a schoolteacher before he took to sea in 1839 as a sailor on a merchant ship. In 1840 he signed aboard the whaler Acushnet for his first whaling voyage, after further adventures, he returned to Boston in 1844. His first book, Typee, a romanticized account of his life among Polynesians, became such a best-seller that he worked up a sequel. These successes encouraged him to marry Elizabeth Shaw, of a prominent Boston family and his first novel not based on his own experiences, Mardi, is a sea narrative that develops into a philosophical allegory, but was not well received. Redburn, a story of life on a merchant ship, and his 1850 expose of harsh life aboard a Man-of-War, White-Jacket yielded warmer reviews, Moby-Dick was another commercial failure, published to mixed reviews. Melvilles career as a popular author effectively ended with the reception of Pierre. His Revolutionary War novel Israel Potter appeared in 1855, from 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, most notably Bartleby, the Scrivener, The Encantadas, and Benito Cereno. These and three stories were collected in 1856 as The Piazza Tales. In 1857, he voyaged to England, where he reunited with Hawthorne for the first time since 1852, the Confidence-Man, was the last prose work he published during his lifetime. He moved to New York to take a position as Customs Inspector, battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the Civil War. In 1867 his oldest child, Malcolm, died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot, Clarel, A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land, a metaphysical epic, appeared in 1876. In 1886, his son, Stanwix, died and Melville retired. Melvilles death from disease in 1891 subdued a reviving interest in his work. The 1919 centennial of his became the starting point of the Melville Revival

11.
Edith Wharton
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Edith Wharton was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927,1928 and 1930, Wharton combined her insiders view of Americas privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her eras other literary and public figures, Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander at their brownstone at 14 West Twenty-third Street in New York City. She had two older brothers, Frederic Rhinelander, who was sixteen, and Henry Edward, who was eleven. She was baptized April 20,1862, Easter Sunday, at Grace Church, to her friends and family she was known as Pussy Jones. The saying keeping up with the Joneses is said to refer to her fathers family and she was also related to the Rensselaer family, the most prestigious of the old patroon families. She had a lifelong friendship with her Rhinelander niece, landscape architect Beatrix Farrand of Reef Point in Bar Harbor. Edith was born during the Civil War, she was three years old when the South surrendered, after the war, the family traveled extensively in Europe. From 1866 to 1872, the Jones family visited France, Italy, Germany, during her travels, the young Edith became fluent in French, German, and Italian. At the age of ten, she suffered from typhoid fever while the family was at a spa in the Black Forest, after the family returned to the United States in 1872, they spent their winters in New York and their summers in Newport, Rhode Island. While in Europe, she was educated by tutors and governesses and she rejected the standards of fashion and etiquette that were expected of young girls at the time, intended to enable women to marry well and to be displayed at balls and parties. She thought these requirements were superficial and oppressive, Edith wanted more education than she received, so she read from her fathers library and from the libraries of her fathers friends. Her mother forbade her to read novels until she was married, Edith began writing poetry and fiction as a young girl. She attempted to write a novel at age eleven and her first publication was a translation of the German poem, Was die Steine Erzählen by Heinrich Karl Brugsch, which earned her $50. Her family did not wish her name to appear in print because the names of upper class women of the time appeared in print to announce birth, marriage. Consequently, the poem was published under the name of a friends father and he was a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson and supported womens education. He played a role in Ediths efforts to educate herself. In 1877, at the age of 15, she wrote a 30,000 word novella Fast

12.
Stanford White
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Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a series of houses for the rich, and numerous public, institutional. His design principles embodied the American Renaissance, in 1906, White was murdered by millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw over Whites relationship with Thaws wife, actress Evelyn Nesbit. This led to a case which was dubbed The Trial of the Century by contemporary reporters. White was the son of Shakespearean scholar Richard Grant White and Alexina Black Mease and his father was a dandy and Anglophile with no money, but a great many connections in New Yorks art world, including painter John LaFarge, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Frederick Law Olmsted. He remained with Richardson for six years, in 1878, White embarked for a year and a half in Europe, and when he returned to New York in September 1879, he joined Charles Follen McKim and William Rutherford Mead to form McKim, Mead and White. As part of the partnership, all designed by the architects were identified as being the work of the collective firm. In 1884, White married 22-year-old Bessie Springs Smith and his new wife hailed from a socially prominent Long Island family, her ancestors were early settlers of the area, and Smithtown, New York, was named for them. Their estate, Box Hill, was not only a home, a son, Lawrence Grant White, was born in 1887. In 1889, White designed the arch at Washington Square. White was the director of the Washington Centennial celebration and created a temporary triumphal arch which was so popular, outside of New York City, White designed the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, now Lovely Lane United Methodist Church. He also designed Cocke, Rouss, and Old Cabell halls at the University of Virginia, additionally, he designed the Blair Mansion at 7711 Eastern Ave. in Silver Spring, Maryland, now being used as a restaurant. He was responsible for designing the Boston Public Library and the Boston Hotel Buckminster, in 1902, he designed the Benjamin Walworth Arnold House and Carriage House in Albany, New York, and he helped to develop Nikola Teslas Wardenclyffe Tower, his last design. Just as his Washington Square Arch still stands, so do many of Whites clubhouses, which were focal points of New York society, the Century, Colony, Harmonie, Lambs, Metropolitan, and Players clubs. However, his clubhouse for the Atlantic Yacht Club, built in 1894 overlooking Gravesend Bay, sons of society families also resided in Whites St. Anthony Hall Chapter House at Williams College, now occupied by college offices. In the division of projects within the firm, the sociable and his fluent draftsmanship was highly convincing to clients who might not get much visceral understanding from a floorplan, and his intuition and facility caught the mood. Whites Long Island houses have survived well, despite the loss of Harbor Hill in 1947 and he also designed the Kate Annette Wetherill Estate in 1895. White designed a number of other New York mansions as well, including the Iselin family estate All View, White was also active designing country estate homes in Greenwich, Connecticut

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Oscar Wilde
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Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he one of Londons most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment, Wildes parents were successful Anglo-Irish, Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life, at university, Wilde read Greats, he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the philosophy of aestheticism. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles, known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with social themes. He wrote Salome in French in Paris but it was refused a licence for England due to the prohibition of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, at the height of his fame and success, while The Importance of Being Earnest, was still being performed in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry prosecuted for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wildes lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, the charge carried a penalty of up to two years in prison. The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest, after two more trials he was convicted and imprisoned for two years hard labour. Upon his release he left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain, there he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. He died destitute in Paris at the age of 46, Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin, the second of three children born to Sir William Wilde and Jane Wilde, two years behind William. Wildes mother was of Italian descent, and under the pseudonym Speranza and she read the Young Irelanders poetry to Oscar and Willie, inculcating a love of these poets in her sons. Lady Wildes interest in the neo-classical revival showed in the paintings and busts of ancient Greece, William Wilde was Irelands leading oto-ophthalmologic surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services as medical adviser and assistant commissioner to the censuses of Ireland. He also wrote books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore, a renowned philanthropist, his dispensary for the care of the citys poor at the rear of Trinity College, Dublin, was the forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road. On his fathers side Wilde was descended from a Dutchman, Colonel de Wilde, on his mothers side Wildes ancestors included a bricklayer from County Durham who emigrated to Ireland sometime in the 1770s. Wilde was baptised as an infant in St, marks Church, Dublin, the local Church of Ireland church

14.
Winslow Homer
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Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America, largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator. He subsequently took up oil painting and produced major studio works characterized by the weight and he also worked extensively in watercolor, creating a fluid and prolific oeuvre, primarily chronicling his working vacations. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1836, Homer was the second of three sons of Charles Savage Homer and Henrietta Benson Homer, both from long lines of New Englanders and his mother was a gifted amateur watercolorist and Homers first teacher. She and her son had a relationship throughout their lives. Homer took on many of her traits, including her quiet, strong-willed, terse, sociable nature, her dry sense of humor, Homer had a happy childhood, growing up mostly in then rural Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a student, but his art talent was evident in his early years. Homers father was a volatile, restless businessman who was looking to make a killing. When Homer was thirteen, Charles gave up the store business to seek a fortune in the California gold rush. When that failed, Charles left his family and went to Europe to raise capital for other schemes that didnt materialize. After Homers high school graduation, his father saw a newspaper advertisement, Homers apprenticeship at the age of 19 to J. H. Bufford, a Boston commercial lithographer, was a formative but treadmill experience. He worked repetitively on sheet music covers and other work for two years. By 1857, his career was underway after he turned down an offer to join the staff of Harpers Weekly. From the time I took my nose off that lithographic stone, Homer later stated, I have had no master, Homers career as an illustrator lasted nearly twenty years. His quick success was due to this strong understanding of graphic design. Before moving to New York in 1859, Homer lived in Belmont and his uncles Belmont mansion, the 1853 Homer House, was the inspiration for a number of his early illustrations and paintings, including several of his 1860s croquet pictures. The Homer House, owned by the Belmont Womans Club, is open for public tours, in 1859, he opened a studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York City, the artistic and publishing capital of the United States. Until 1863, he attended classes at the National Academy of Design, and studied briefly with Frédéric Rondel, in only about a year of self-training, Homer was producing excellent oil work

15.
Robert A. M. Stern
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Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern, is a New York City and New Haven based American architect, professor, and academic writer. He previously served as the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture and he also heads his own architecture firm, Robert A. M. Stern Architects, often referred to as RAMSA. Stern is a representative of New Urbanism and New Classical Architecture, with a emphasis on urban context. He may have been the first architect to use the term postmodernism, in 2011, Stern was honored with the renowned Driehaus Architecture Prize for his achievements in contemporary classical architecture. Some of his firms works include New York Citys new classical 15 Central Park West,20 East End Avenue. Stern was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1939, Stern received a bachelors degree from Columbia University in 1960 and a masters degree in architecture from Yale University in 1965. Stern has cited Vincent Scully and Philip Johnson as early mentors, immediately after leaving Yale, Stern was employed as a curator by the Architectural League of New York, a job he gained through a connection with Philip Johnson. While at the League, he organized the second 40 Under 40 show, which featured the work of then-unknown architects Charles Moore, Robert Venturi, upon leaving the Architectural League, Stern worked as a designer in the office of Richard Meier in 1966. Three years later, he established Stern & Hagmann with a student from his days at Yale. In 1977 he founded its successor firm, Robert A. M. Stern Architects, Stern continues to work for RAMSA today, and has indicated he does not plan to retire. Stern has been dean of the Yale School of Architecture since 1998, previously, he was professor at Columbia University, in the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He was also director of Columbias Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture from 1984 to 1988, Stern is known for his academic work concerning American architectural history. In 1986, he hosted “Pride of Place, Building the American Dream, the series featured Peter Eisenman, Leon Krier, Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry, and other notable architects. Pride of Place was well received by the public, although other architects disliked it, many of Sterns early non-residential scale commissions were for Walt Disney World, including Disneys Yacht Club Resort, Disneys Beach Club Resort, and the plan for Celebration, Florida. He later served on the board of the Walt Disney Company from 1992-2003, many of Sterns early works were private homes in the New York metropolitan area, including in the Hamptons and Westchester County. 15 Central Park West was, at the time of its completion, one of the most successful apartment buildings ever constructed, Stern has designed some of the tallest structures in the United States. Early in his career, he expressed interest in designing skyscrapers, a departure from his work at the time, Sterns tallest structures include the Comcast Center, the tallest building in both Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. The building, clad in glass was described by the Driehaus Prize committee as forward the proportions of the classical obelisk, the building, along with 15 Central Park West, and his plan for Celebration, Florida, were cited as motivation for his winning the award